Comments on: H809: Reading 21 Hammersley (2006) Ethnography: Problems and prospects

By: Bookmarks about Ethnography

Bookmarks about Ethnography — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:00:19 +0000

[...] – bookmarked by 2 members originally found by LipGlossRush on 2008-11-16 H809: Reading 21 Hammersley (2006) Ethnography: Problems and prospects [...]

By: Ira Socol

Ira Socol — Mon, 19 May 2008 23:09:06 +0000

There Are No Children Here is famous because it is largely credited with pushing Chicago to begin demolishing and replacing the infamous Cabrini Green project, now mostly accomplished. Slim’s Table is different, no one reads it except graduate students in research methods courses, but it can be an instructive look at how the politics of a university control research attitudes.

Of course I say all this as a dedicated post-modernist and lefty.

By: eguinan

eguinan — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:19:20 +0000

@ John: Terribly sorry but your comment oddly ended up in my spam filter until I spotted it tonight. A postmodern critique on your opinion of sorts? (Anyway, I don’t moderate comments at all, so if any of your don’t appear here immediately, please let me know.)
@ Ira. I was a bit surprised to find that these studies are from 91 and 92 rather than the 60s or so. Are they famous because they are important studies or because of their contrary views?

By: Ira Socol

Ira Socol — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:05:17 +0000

Slim’s Table by Mitchell Duneier (which I was dragged to in a research methods class) was a doctoral thesis at the University of Chicago. “There Are No Children Here” is by Alex Kotlowitz who is a reporter by training. They both take place in Chicago at the same time, about 3/4 of a mile apart, though you’d hardly recognise it as the same city. Duneier, I feel, falls into the biggest trap we can fall into, choosing a place of comfort to begin his observation, and only barely venturing beyond it. He sort of sees what he wants to see, something which was probably firmly backed up by the right-wing politics which dominate large parts of his university (the people behind Pinochet in Chile).

Anyway, have you read Clifford Geertz – The Interpretation of Cultures – ? That’s where “we” – over here – typically begin…

By: eguinan

eguinan — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:45:15 +0000

Hi Ira, I’m not familiar with those studies (?), but I get the impression I ought to be.

Google shall be my friend…..

By: Ira Socol

Ira Socol — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:32:46 +0000

Face to Face has every drawback of every other kind of communication. It is also manipulated, and twisted, and it is quite common for ethnographers to “see what they want to see.” (See the stunningly different views of African-American Chicago – at the same moment – presented in “Slim’s Table” v. “There Are No Children Here.”)

By: John

John — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:50:17 +0000

Of course the post-modernists and New Lefties were being completely consistent by not requiring the parodic article to conform to any positions or structures.
And Sokal, by the way, freely admits that he had a big ideological axe to grind.